


Field Study

by fredesrojo



Series: Natural History [1]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Single Parents AU, also probs mildly crack, close enough, does it count if they're not in a relationship yet?, eh, newsbbs AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-17 16:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1394410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredesrojo/pseuds/fredesrojo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She thinks she’s imagining the smirk on Ms. Thompson’s face when she announces the pairings, but it might be more disgruntled feelings towards the insufferably blonde--<b>and also attractive</b>, her mind supplies--Will McAvoy than anything else.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Single Parents! AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Field Study

**Author's Note:**

  * For [simplyprologue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplyprologue/gifts).



> Developed from the seed of a mildly cracky idea of Will and Mac as single parents with the newsbabies as their children, which morphed into a juggernaut of ridiculous proportions as soon as I breathed mention of it to Emily.
> 
> Basically, Hot Dad!Will and Hot Mom!Mac (idek if Hot Mom! is a trope but its def gonna be after this) being chaperones on their kids' school field trip.
> 
> Will still anchors News Night for ACN, but Mac currently works for ABC as the EP for This Week
> 
> Maggie McAvoy--(mother is Nina Howard but obvs not in picture, Will p much has full custody)  
> Jim McHale--(father is Brian Brenner, definitely not in the picture, Mac's always had full custody)

“Ms. McHale?”

Mac turns around at the light tug on the end of her jacket, squinting down at the little girl standing there. She only knows about half of Jim’s second grade class on the field trip, but she remembers this particular child from his birthday party, blonde little Maggie, from whom Jim seems convinced the very sun shines. "Maggie, right?”

“Uh huh.” Maggie nods solemnly, the effect somewhat diminished by the sloppy ponytail her blonde hair is falling out of. “Can you--” The second grader glances around carefully before continuing, “Can you fix my hair?”

“Fix your hair?”

“Daddy didn’t really have time this morning because we were in a hurry,” She explains nervously, fidgeting with the hem of her striped top. “His alarm didn’t go off and he had to make breakfast and there just wasn’t enough time to do my hair. He's usually pretty okay but I still can't do it myself."

Mac cursorily glances around the large room where they’re gathered with the rest of the second grade waiting for the museum tour to start--Jim’s holding court in a mixed group of boys and girls a few feet away, gesturing as he tells a story, but Maggie’s father seems absent for the time being--she can't quite remember which parent the little girl is meant to be attached to. “Well I suppose I could help out.”

“Can you do braids?” The little girl holds preternaturally still as Mac gently finger combs her hair and then starts separating sections out to braid, infinitely patient in a way that she hasn’t seen in most second graders. “Daddy says his fingers are too big.”

“Sometimes Daddies aren’t the best at this sort of thing,” Mac poses pragmatically. “As it turns out I’m terrible at sports, so not everyone can do everything.”

“Mmhmm. You’re Jimmy’s mommy, right?”

“That’s right.”

“He says he doesn’t really have a daddy,” Maggie murmurs, voice lowered. “I don’t really have a mommy, though, so I told him we could be friends.”

“Well--” Mac falters, because how do you explain a divorce and separation and being a single parent to a seven year old? She finally settles on-- “...His father doesn’t visit much.”

“My mommy only visits a couple of times unless Daddy has a problem at work, but usually he lets me go sit in Aunt Lee’s office.” Maggie sighs, playing absently with one finished braid as Mac works through the hair on the other side of her head. “But last time Daddy had big news to report Aunt Lee was in England so he had to call Mommy.”

(Mac vaguely remembers meeting Maggie’s mother at Jim’s birthday party, a willowy blonde woman in entirely too nice clothing for a children’s play party who spent most of it glued to her tablet and disappearing to take “important” phone calls.

Brian is...well, Brian, and only ever seems to show up when he decides having a son is beneficial to him.)

“There we go, all finished.” She ties off the second braid with a spare elastic and grins when Maggie spins around, pushing back to standing. “Your dad works in news?”

“He’s the anchor of _News Night with Will McAvoy_!” Maggie proclaims proudly, bouncing on her toes. “Uncle Charlie says he’s the most watched cable news anchor.”

“What’s this I hear about me?” They both look up as a third joins the conversation, and holy crap, she’s looking at Will _McAvoy_.

(And now the missing connection slots into place because she remembers Maggie's last name is _McAvoy_ , she's listed right before Jim alphabetically on everything.)

“Whatever she’s telling you it’s definitely half fabrication, I promise,” He says, grinning a little as Maggie frowns and stomps her foot.

“Daddy!”

“Who’s your friend, Magpie?” McAvoy tilts his head, blue eyes glancing up and down her form.

“Ms. McHale! She fixed my hair,” Maggie explains, swishing her braids back and forth. “Because we were late this morning.”

“Hm.” He mumbles, scowling playfully. “We were late? I seem to remember a certain someone who refused to wake up on time. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. McHale. I’m Will McAvoy.”

“Mac, please.” Mac manages, half stuttering as she accepts the offered handshake. “I mean--MacKenzie, I’m MacKenzie McHale. But you can call me Mac.”

“Will, then. You’re James’ mom,” He nods, smirking a little. “I recognized the last name.”

“His name isn’t James, it’s Jimmy!”

Mac exchanges an amused glance with Will, chuckling. “Actually his name is James. Jimmy is a nickname. Like Maggie is for Margaret.”

“Or Magpie,” Will interjects, patting her shoulder fondly. “Come on, we’ve got to go get our group assignments from your teacher, kiddo.”

“Can Jimmy be in our group?”

“I think Jimmy’s probably going to be with his mom,” Will shrugs, crouching to let Maggie clamber up onto his back. “But we’ll see. Maybe Ms. Thompson will let us be partners,” He proposes, winking at Mac.

Mac rolls her eyes for Maggie’s benefit, enjoying the peal of laughter her actions draw as Will’s smirking grin descends into a pout. “Who says I would want to be partners with you?”

The pout intensifies (and suddenly Maggie McAvoy’s resemblance to her father is made all the more clear). “I’m charming.”

“To your audience, maybe.” She smirks. “Still not a reason to agree to work with you.”

He huffs. “I’m affable!”

“Again, to your audience. You’ve made a name for yourself in broadcast news by being the guy who doesn’t offend anyone, but you’ve got the intellect to be pushing a debate back and asking the tough questions. What was it they called you last month, the Jay Leno of broadcast journalism?” She doesn’t really know _why_ she’s suddenly struck up a debate about the news with Will McAvoy of all people, but Mac has always loved an argument.

Will snorts. “And you know this because…”

“I’m the executive producer of _This Week_ on ABC.”

“Hah.” He scoffs. “Because George Stephanopoulos is pushing the debate.”

“Dad--”

“Oh like you’re pushing it any harder, _Leno._ ”

“Daddy--”

“I think I’m content to keep my audience if it’s all the same to you.”

“It’s not all the same to me, you jughead, you’re completely wasting your talent on not doing the news!”

_“Daddy.”_

(Oh, crap.)

“Huh?”

“Ms. Thomas is waiting for us,” Maggie whispers exaggeratedly, frowning at them both--and now that her attention has been drawn to it, Mac realizes that more than half of the room is staring at the three of them.

Will immediately grins, sheepish. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

Because her luck is just that kind of great, Mac finds herself partnered with Will, both of them heading an assorted group of Maggie and Jim’s little classmates.

(She thinks she’s imagining the smirk on Ms. Thompson’s face when she announces the pairings, but it might be more disgruntled feelings towards the insufferably blonde-- _and also attractive_ , her mind supplies--Will McAvoy than anything else.)

“Mom?” Jim shuffles to her side, ever astute in the way Brian never managed to be. “Is Mr. McAvoy bothering you?”

She wants to laugh when the not-so-whispered comment makes Will’s head snap around, but settles for smiling at her son. “No, we’re fine. Just a difference in opinion.”

“Is it because he does different news than you do?”

(She’s definitely going to laugh if Will McAvoy keeps that ridiculous scowl up.)

“...Kind of.” God, she needs a distraction. “How about we find a map so we can figure out where we need to go to get your worksheets done?”

That, at least, seems to placate the little horde of second graders they’re meant to be watching, and also gives MacKenzie enough cover to sidle closer to Will’s side.

“I don’t dislike you, you know.”

“You just think I’m a half-rate hack,” He mutters, frowning at the list of children they have. “Which one’s Tess? I can never remember."

“The blonde next to your daughter. And I hardly think you’re a hack, I just think you could be doing better than what you are. You’re an intelligent man.” Mac steals the list, running her finger down the names. “The redhead is Tamara, Jim is over there with Donny Keefer and Sloan Sabbith, and then we have Gary, Neal, Kendra, and Jerry.”

“How’d you get to know all of their names so quickly?” Will looks a little harassed, trying to corral Maggie, Tess, and Tamara back to the main group. “It’s like they multiply. Every time I look around there’s more of them.”

“Jim’s friends with Don, Sloan, Gary, Kendra, and Neal. And he says Maggie and Tess and Tamara are best friends for always, whatever that means.”

“And Jerry?”

“He’s...not the most popular.”

(In truth, Mac has heard some horror stories about Jerome Dantana--chronic liar and tattletale, cheater at playground games, and the apparent thief of all of the best boxes of crayons and markers.

Oh, the joys of youth.)

“He’s a big fat liar, Daddy.” Maggie pipes up, holding up a stack of maps. “Is this enough maps to finish the worksheet?”

Will seems to be badly stifling amusement, so Mac jumps in with a save. “We’ll only need two, Maggie. Why don’t you put the rest back and we’ll get started?” She swallows down a bout of nervous laughter, glancing at Will out of the corner of her eye.

He grins. “Not the most popular, huh?”

(It’s clearly going to be a long day.)

“I never realized field trips to the Museum of Natural History were this involved,” Will comments as they troop along the first floor of exhibits, searching for the answer to a picture puzzle on the worksheet. “I mean I grew up in Nebraska so our field trips pretty much consisted of going to someone’s farm, but still.”

Mac checks their progress--Jim, Donny, and Sloan are mostly leading them along, three dark heads bent over one of the group’s maps--and shrugs, reaching out to direct Jerry back in the correct direction. “I don’t really remember many field trips, but I definitely think we didn’t have worksheets.”

“Second grade, though.”

“It promotes critical thinking...and mostly keeps them from running amok.”

Will considers this and gets a sly look. “Think she’ll notice if we help them with the answers?”

“I can’t believe you’re suggesting such an egregious breach of ethics,” Mac deadpans, angling her paper towards him, half of the answers already penciled in.

“Eh.” Will McAvoy is kind of terrible at looking innocent, if she really thinks about it. He grins.  “There’s a new dinosaur exhibit and I don’t want them to miss out.”

“Always for the children, of course.”

He coughs. “Definitely.”

“Oh, alright. Give them half an hour and then direct them towards the right answers?”

“Deal.”

“Daddy!” Maggie’s whisper-shout draws their attention to where she, Tess, and Tamara are huddled in front of a large display, and Will rolls his eyes.

“Sorry, the unholy trio requests my presence.”

“Unholy trio?” (This is muttered as an aside as they herd the rest of the group towards the girls.

Leading a group of ten second graders through the Museum is a lot more akin to herding animals than it is any sort of civilized or organized endeavor--one of them starts to nudge the kids in the right direction, and the other redirects the strays.)

“Too on the nose?”

Mac laughs. “I call Jim, Donny, and Sloan the Three Musketeers.” And then, “Unholy though, really? They’re seven.”

“They made me sing Taylor Swift,” Will mutters darkly, half of his attention focused on keeping Jerry from climbing on the exhibit’s podium. “That stupid Romeo and Juliet song.”

She laughs loudly--the mental image is just too much--and ignores the disgruntled looks from another group in the exhibition hall, wiping her eyes while Will scowls impressively. “Oh, that’s brilliant.”

“And I suppose it’s all sunshine and rainbows raising a boy,” Will grumbles, petulant.

“He likes the Beatles, so we get along musically quite well. I am terrible with sports though.”

“I don’t think you can talk until you’ve been on the receiving end of a makeover.” He shudders in memory, eyes a bit glazed. “So. Much. Pink.”

Mac shrugs. “I sit through Little League games every spring, and I haven’t the faintest understanding of baseball.”

Will splutters, gaping at her incredulously. “You--it’s the American national pastime!”

“It’s a glorified game of rounders where men run around in tight pants and get paid entirely too much money.”

“It’s...you’re…”

“Completely American despite the accent, I assure you.” Mac glances around, wincing. “Is it just me or has it gotten a bit too quiet?”

“Oh, crap,” Will turns on the spot, darting forward to catch the edge of Jim’s sleeve just before the group gets out the doors. “Hey, slow down, Scooter.”

“But we figured out the next exhibit on the worksheet!”

“Yeah, well, you still can’t run off without your mom and I, bud.”

“You guys were walking too slow,” Sloan Sabbith protests, frowning up at Will. “We have to go fast!”

He falters at the fairly impressive innocent look from Sloan, losing a bit of the serious edge he’d had before.. “Well, we were--I mean you still shouldn’t wander off, it’s not safe.”

“But we could still see you! You’re really tall.”

“Yeah, Daddy, we could still see you, and we were only going over there.” Maggie pouts up at them worriedly, and she can see Will’s gone.

“I think we’ll get the whole sheet done as a group,” Mac says, injecting a note of finality into her voice that finally seems to do the trick where Will’s cajoling wasn’t.

And of course she ends up as the bad cop, because Will seems to be incapable of saying no to any female under the age of ten--he’s currently getting dragged along by Maggie and her friends, half stumbling across the exhibit hall with five girls hanging over him.

He sends her a pleading ‘help’ look ten minutes later, swarmed as he is by Maggie and her friends, so Mac coaxes Jim and the rest of the boys towards the exit with the almost finished worksheet and smirks at Will’s predicament as she passes. “Who wants to go to the gift shop?”

She limits Jim to two things, keeping a weather eye on the other children as they explore the gift shop--most of them seem to have some form of pocket money from their parents, so it’s not like they can’t buy anything, but Mac has a feeling most of the money is going to go towards candy and cheap trinkets.

Jim picks out a dino excavation set and a secret message kit (not all that expensive, all told, and Mac’s really just glad he didn’t pick a bag full of candy like Jerry Dantana), but Maggie McAvoy apparently knows just how to play her father.

“Please, Daddy?” With her arms wrapped around the large penguin plushie, Maggie pretty much personifies ‘adorable’, hazel eyes peering up at Will.

“Maggie…”

“But you said we’d get a new friend after we had to retire Mr. Bartholomew, and you never did.” She blinks innocently, squeezing the penguin closer. “And if I put a bowtie on him he’ll look like Uncle Charlie.”

(He’s definitely going to cave.)

Will sighs. “...Alright. But that’s it, Magpie, nothing more. Just the penguin.”

Maggie squeals and runs off, leaving Will clutching the stuffed animal in the middle of the shop.

“You held out admirably. Those eyes are killer.”

“Don’t start.”

“I’m just curious, is the inability to say ‘no’ because she’s a girl, or are you just that much of a softy?” Mac smirks, tongue poking out between her teeth. “Also...Mr. Bartholomew?”

Will glances around warily and then shifts closer, lowering his voice. “It was this stuffed leopard thing she got from the zoo a long time ago, and she dragged it everywhere. I had to retire it after we got caught in a rainstorm in the park--couldn’t get the smell out.”

She snorts. “Don’t tell, but I have six replacements of Jim’s favorite blanket hidden in assorted places around the apartment and my office.”

“Huh.” He blinks and then eyes the stuffed penguin dubiously, frowning. “So should I get a replacement or…”

“You’re probably safe. Although Maggie seems to have a long memory, so…”

“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t think the last one through,” He sighs and hefts the penguin, smiling wryly. “40 dollars for a stuffed penguin. Wonders never cease.”

Maggie gloms on to the plush penguin once Will hands it over and immediately starts a loud debate with Tess and Tamara over what to name the thing while Mac works with Will to chivvy the group out of the gift shop and back to the main group.

Will sidles up to her side as the museum guides chatter through a short video presentation to end the trip, leaning against the wall near her shoulder. “So. This wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

“You’ve never been on a field trip with Maggie before?”

He smirks. “Some of us work on news shows that air more than once a week.”

“Hey!” She’s laughing, though.

“Kidding, kidding.” Will ducks his head, frowning slightly. “Listen, I, uh...I mean I hope we’ll see each other around. Y’know, with news functions and stuff.”

(Mac nearly spits out the automatic ‘Of course’, but then the meaning of his words filters through and-- _is he seriously asking for a date?_

Dammit, and he’s cute too.)

“You know you could just ask for my number,” She teases, smiling enough to soften the blow to his ego. “Unless you want to wait for some formal function neither of us would want to be at to ask me on a date.”

The gaping look Mac gets in reply is more than flattering--it seems Will McAvoy thinks a lot more of his romantic game than it actually is--and Will flounders for a minute, stuttering. “Uh, you--I mean, you’d like that? You want to?”

“Want to what?”

“Go. On a date.” He runs a hand through his hair nervously--wow, how did she not notice the cowlick before, Hair and Makeup must put a gallon of product in his hair for TV--glancing at her. “I mean, if you want to. If not, ignore me.” He stops, breathes, tries again. “Sorry. I’m not doing this very well. I’d be better if I could start over--”

“Yes.”

“--and I’m really not usually like this, I mean I can talk like a normal--wait, what did you say?”

“I said yes. I’m saying yes.” Mac grins. “Yes, I want to go on a date with you.”

“Oh.” Will blinks, his features abruptly rearranging into a pleased smile. “You--really? Yeah, okay that’s...yeah, great. Um…” He pats his pockets frantically, searching to pull out his phone. “Are you free this weekend? Saturday? I know you’ve got the show Sunday--lunch, maybe? O-or dinner, that’s fine too.”

“Saturday’s fine. Dinner. Preferably without the kids, because finding a menu that serves good wine and chicken tenders is impossible,” She wraps her hand around his on the phone, thumbing through to his contacts book to input her number. “Here’s my number, call if anything changes--or if you know, news happens.”

He nods mutely, still clutching the phone, and Mac figures now is as good a time as any to make an exit.

“It was nice working with you today. I’ll see you around, Will.”

(She definitely doesn’t smile as she walks away, not at the stuttered half-shout of ‘I’ll call you’ that follows behind.

A date, with Will McAvoy.

Talk about a field trip, indeed.)

 

**Author's Note:**

> This will be the part of an eventual series.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
